The invention relates to the field of information exchange in a motor vehicle and more particularly to an adaptation device making it possible to facilitate information exchange between a vehicle and an element integrated into the vehicle such as a multimedia system.
A motor vehicle is generally designed for an average duration of five to seven years and integrates several electronic systems. A multimedia system has a shorter lifetime than that of a vehicle, generally from two to three years before being replaced. Given the constant upgrading of the electronics market and technological innovations, it seems natural to integrate the new facilities arriving on the market into vehicles. Moreover, when a new multimedia system is developed, it is intended to be integrated into a large number of models of vehicles, whose electronic architectures, designed at different epochs and with different constraints, may vary.
The protocols used to exchange data or information between the various multimedia systems and the vehicle are generally determined for a given vehicle range. These data originate from various sensors or computers and relate for example to the state of the vehicle or of systems integrated into the vehicle. Gateways can be used to communicate between onboard networks of different technologies. Thus initially, various data travel to a gateway for example via the CAN bus of the vehicle. These data are thereafter translated by way of conversion functions integrated into the gateway and are dispatched via the CAN bus of the vehicle, or any other network, to the various systems for which the information is relevant, in the suitably adapted format.
The conversion and the transmissions of data are carried out for a given vehicle, and for a given system. To integrate a new multimedia system arriving on the market into a vehicle which is for example already on the market, it is sometimes not sufficient to modify the conversion function stored in the adaptation device or gateway. Indeed, the integration of new multimedia facilities into an existing vehicle may require that the vehicle make available information not demanded by the existing multimedia facilities or that the new multimedia system make available information in a previous format. From one vehicle to another or from one multimedia system to another, this information may flow around onboard networks in various formats or travel over dedicated wires also in various formats. Poorly controlled, the adaptations required by this integration may impact a large number of computers, both of the vehicle and of the multimedia system, and are expensive. Moreover, standardizing the interface between all the vehicles and all the multimedia systems does not make it possible to manage independent upgrades of the format and of the content of the information of the vehicles on the one hand and of the format and of the content of the information of the multimedia systems on the other hand.